Fur In The Paint

I got in late last night and imagine my surprise to find what the response was (both on and off the blog) to my crop circle post. Okay guys I never in a million years thought you’d think I was serious about the whole crop circle thing. But since my faithful bloggy folk (who know me to be beyond silly at times with any subject other than art) thought I was serious, what will those in Google-land think.

So I updated the crop circle post. I had originally drawn a more detailed rendition (Image right) of my crop circle over view but Mike thought it too obvious. So I simplified. (Um . . . yeah that’s right. It’s totally all his fault.)

The Blue Ribbon goes to Joan for recognizing a horse from it though. I thought my drawing was the give away that I was spoofing. So, well . . . sorry. Sometimes my need for amusement outweigh my better sense. I can’t say it won’t happen again because it probably will. I’ll try to include some sort of disclaimer though.

To be clear I don’t believe aliens have been in my pasture. Ghosts maybe but not aliens. (kidding just kidding.)

Ahhh hubris, Will I ever learn?

So today I did a phone interview with Bethany Caskey of Rural Heritage Magazine about my draft horse art. Rural Heritage Magazine is bi-monthly magazine devoted to farming and logging with horses, mules and oxen. I was totally tickled when she asked for an interview.

Because it’s been awhile since I’ve done an interview I thought I should do a little studying. You know, so I would sound like I know what I’m talking about and don’t say things like

“You know like . . .”

“totally”

and worst of all “Umm . . .”

Most of the time when magazines or newspapers do an article on me they just look through the mountainous piles of online stuffs and then just ask a couple of questions. But I had a feeling this was gonna be an actual interview.

So the plan was to prepare for it by doing a little research by looking through that mountainous pile of information, so I’d have a wealth of artsy fartsy words at my brain’s fingertips. (figuratively speaking)

Eventually I babbled out some sort of verbal diarrhea the content of which I don’t remember because my subconscious has had to block out the trauma.

As I perused some of my writings it brought back memories of college exams and cramming at the last minute. Yes, I knew about the interview a few weeks prior, but why do then what I could put off until the very last possible second now.

After a few minutes of this, much like in real life, I got bored with myself and thought “Meh, what possible question could she ask that I wouldn’t immediately know the answer to?” And so just like in college, I slacked off.

And The Silence Was Deafening

So when she called I had my giant tumbler of Diet Coke at hand and got comfy on the couch, fully prepared to dazzle her with my elite equestrian artist-ness.

Bethany: (paraphrasing here) “So Mona, what would you like the readers of Rural Heritage Magazine to most know about you and your work?”

Me: “That having my artwork in their homes will bring them happiness, joy and prosperity.”

Okay, that’s not what I said. That’s what ran through my head because of my childlike tendency to amuse myself. Fortunately it went unsaid because I do have some impulse control. What I actually said was,

“. . . . Ummm . . . . err . . . ahhh . . . . that’s a good question.” (aw crap!)

Yup. I totally blew the cool artist thing I was shooting for, and I did it within the first 30 seconds of the interview. (awesome) Eventually I babbled out some sort of verbal diarrhea the content of which I don’t remember because my subconscious has had to block out the trauma.

But Bethany was a trooper and soon she had me relaxed and laughing. 45 minutes later I came to the determination that I liked her and thought she and I would get along really well in person.

So Bethany if you just happen to take a peek back on the blog, Thank you so much for your kindness. You made me at ease and relaxed and better still you made me laugh. All of those things are proof that you are a seriously excellent at your job. I’m looking forward to meeting you at the World Percheron Congress.

UPDATED:

Occasionally I am a little slow on the uptake. (Okay not just occasionally.) Bethany had said a couple of things which triggered something that didn’t quite sink in until after I got off the phone. Subtle hints that said she was creative in addition to her writing. So I Googled her.

Yup just as I thought. Bethany Caskey’s website is chocked full of really great horse art. Check it out!

It’s the end of the day. A good day mind you as I took most of it off and I played some PS2 and did a little light reading.

As I was making dinner (or is it Supper? I can never keep them straight) Mike was reading my blog, which you may well be surprised to know he almost never does. (I know, I know you’d think he wouldn’t be able to get enough of me despite spending nearly 24 hours of every day together.)

The reason he’s reading my blog is because earlier he was at the computer and I had left a tablet next to it with the poorly (one might even say . . . franticly) scribbled sentence. “The voices in my head tell me to kill you.”

Now thinking he may have noticed this note I felt obligated to tell him why I wrote it. You know in case he was wondering if I left it out as some sort of premeditative insanity defense for when I killed him later in his sleep.

I’m like “Uh, that was a search term someone used and and for some reason google thought it best to send them to my blog for help. And well, I kinda wanted to know what I wrote that would qualify..” (Turns out it was my Breyerfest post - who knew?)

So after Mike uncovered the mystery of Google’s belief that my blog is exactly what potential killers need) he started reading my blog. Which happens so rarely I got the “Ah crap!” moment that I was just telling you about. You know where I feel like I’m being judged and it’s too late because I’ve already exposed my fluffy vulnerable underbelly through my writing.

Mike reading recent post “You’re a 40 something channeling a teenager?”

Me looking sideways at him to see if he’s mocking me “Well I did just spend the day playing video games and reading a teenager vampire novel.” (borrowed from an actual teenager mind you)

Mike: Looks at me speculatively, then nods slowly in an understanding way and returns to looking at the monitor.

(Sigh) Perhaps it would have been better to let him believe I was plotting a murder. At least that makes me seem like more of an adult.

As To The Vampire Book I Was Reading Actually I’ve been reading a couple of different series. Both are remarkably the same story though with of course different names and basic plots. But both books are set at some sort of vampire school and both have good vampires (who are considered alive and take blood from willing folks) and bad vampires (which are considered dead and take blood forcibly.) Of the two series I enjoyed the Vampire Academy (as opposed to the House Of Night) more. Rose is a kick butt kinda character (like Lara Croft of Tomb Raider) though she still makes really rather child-like decisions at times. All in all both are a fun easy read that entertains and fills the void for all those who read the Twilight Series

Spirit Bound by Richelle Meade is the fifth book in the Vampire Academy series and I believe from what I’ve heard (from the aforementioned teen who is also reading the series) the next will be th the last and then the author will start a new character line using the same school backdrop.

Burned is a house of night book by Kristen Cast. What allowed me to actually read this series was that I started reading it after 6 books were written and I just read them back to back. Had I to wait 6 months to a year between books I would never had gotten past the first one. Frankly the first 5 books could have been condensed into two and the story would have progressed much better. The first few books cover like a couple weeks at a time. I really like to move a little faster than that in general. None-the-less I still enjoyed the series for what it was and by the time I got to the most recent book Burned the story had gotten more intricate and I was actually curious as to what happens next.

So there you go. If your looking for some fluff reading for summer and you’re one of the millions loving the whole vampire thing try a couple of these on for size. (Okay you can stop judging me now.)

Whoohoo! Can you believe it, we actually made it this far. To think I started out so many years ago, a young girl with a dream. A dream to write about art with little regard to sentence structure or punctuation (and a grotesque abuse of brackets . . . or are these things parenthesis?) And here we are. (wiping tear away from eye)

So everyone prepare to raise a glass of champagne, diet coke, beverage of choice in a toast. But first . . . a few words.

A statistical survey
In honor of this great achievement I have conducted a poll. As you know I am a woman who loves the numbers, so I would like to share with you the results. It shows that my blog Fur In The Paint is overwhelmingly the single most popular artsy/critter oriented/weird artist (I prefer the term quirky thank-you-very-much) blog out there.

I’d like to do that but my husband insists that a survey consisting of my mother, a couple of close friends and someone who owes me money, is not a statistically valid sample. (Sheesh!)

But as I have said so often on this blog it is dam near a mantra by now. “Let’s not quibble over reality shall we.”

Still got your glass raised? Okay a toast

Oh, hold up . . . In all good conscience I should say that “technically” this is not my 500th blog post because I had a few tester posts when I first started. Also I have deleted a couple of posts over the years that I started and later thought “Meh . . .” But as I have said so often on this blog it is dam near a mantra by now. “Let’s not quibble over reality shall we.” The blog post counter thingy says 500. So 500 it is.

At any rate “Here’s to you guys! My readers and dare I say it . . . friends. Because without your support I would have quit the bloggy experiment thing a long, long time ago.” Salute!

Avi and Big Al
Avi Cohen (the owner of Alborozo) actually commented on my blog recently. Technically it was signed “Avi Cohen and Alborozo” (How cute is that?)

My initial reaction was “Cool!” Which was then closely followed by my usual “Aw crap!” moment where I wonder about what I said and how I said it. You know for some people (like patrons, potential patrons, horse owners whose horses I want to paint etc.) I like to appear to be a professional artist (whatever that is.) And not like my usual self, which is something closer to a “40 something” who’s channeling a teenager.

When I started my blog I had seriously pondered how I would present myself here. I could pretty easily fall into professional mode, but frankly that seemed kinda dull. Especially when thinking of blogging for the long haul. On the other hand since I’m promoting the blog on my website (which hopefully reads professional) I had considered it carefully. How people perceive you can definitely impact sales. The beauty (and horror) of this on-line medium is that you can portray yourself and pretend to be anyone. The other thing is that most of the time it’s kinda like writing in a diary. But I seem to forget that people (many more people than I would have guessed when I started out) actually find my blog and read it. (yup, that part still weirds me out. But seriously you’d think I’d grasp that that is the whole point of a blog.)

My initial reaction was “Cool!” Which was then closely followed by my usual “Aw Crap!” moment . . .

Down To Earth
Often I ponder what perception people have of artists. That mental image you form in your head when someone says he’s a doctor, lawyer or an artist. Often when people meet me they comment on how down to earth I am. I usually respond with something like “shoveling horse poo every morning tends to keep me grounded in reality.”

In the end I went with my bloggy personality being someone who is pretty much myself. Hardworking, kinda silly and who gets uncomfortable with too much praise.

So now I’ve admitted that I thought Avi commenting on my blog was “cool” which then makes me decidedly “not” cool. Because if I was a cool fat cat artist I would be “so above it all.” But I’m not. I still enjoy simple pleasures like when people comment on my blog. So thanks to all of you who like me for who I am, and keep me motivated to share my world.

The Red Rock Art Center
222 E. Blue Earth Ave.
Fairmont, MN

So here’s what the outside looks like. This was originally a Christian Science Church and was scheduled for demolition in 1999. Restoration estimates came in at around a million dollars. But with the help of many volunteers and fund raising efforts they were able to complete the restoration in 5 years and for half that amount. This building is beautiful both inside and out.

Here’s a photo of Barb (left) and I. This was at the end of the day so we were both kinda harried looking by this point. Plus Barb had a cold. She did amazing well for feeling so crappy.

Barb thinks we need to more of this kinda thing. She was unsure how well our work would mesh. Which surprised me since we do the same thing, just a little differently. But she had a blast and wanted to repeat the experience.

So who knows. Maybe I’ll be doing a lot more gallery gigs. I doubt it though. I still seems to have some sort of resistance. Maybe it’s because I’ve been asked about a dozen times since taking the work to the art center, from customers coming into my gallery, if I’ve been robbed.

Well once again I failed in my photo taking opportunities. I broke out my camera when the event was pretty much over and people had left.

I must say the photos really don’t do the room justice. The size and openess of the space is wonderful. There was also more than one level and we had artwork throughout the building both upstairs and down.

Prior there was a lot of smoozing and we both gave a little talk about our art and how we became the artistic giants we are. (smirk) But it was loads of fun and the center puts on a nice reception with a free-styling piano player and goodies galore. I did sell a few things which is quite nice and helps to make the trip worth it. You know me. I’m almost always about keeping my bottom line.

This is my dog Cisco. She’s a collie/golden cross. And lately (and often) I’m waking up to find her nose just about touching mine, with her giant brown eyes staring at me. She seems to be standing there, willing me to wake up. It’s not like she wants to go outside or anything. She just watches me sleep until I wake.

When I open my eyes, she usually shifts her eyes left and right like she’s unsure. (I can be a bit of a Grizzly Bear in the morning) But when I smile or mumble incoherently, she makes little happy noises and stomps around tail wagging excitedly. Then in a flash she slaps a big lick on the end of my nose. Which usually gets a squeal or an Ugh. (Though I’m an animal person I hate licking, especially on the face and she knows it.) So it’s a hit and run lick.

I usually have trouble falling asleep afterward, even when it’s still in the middle of the night. Cisco however has no trouble falling back asleep. Now contented because she made me squeal she goes and settles down somewhere secure in the knowledge that her work here is done.

Here’s yet another little known fact about me.
There are people who have known me for decades who don’t know this about me.

And the thing they don’t know? I grew up in a . . . okay, I’m not going to say a “haunted house.” I really don’t know what is up with that old house. What I do know is really freaky stuff was always happening (and still does) and many people besides our family have experienced something . . . odd while in it. Frankly I think having grown up in it was a major reason I have such an interest in all the various world religions. But then again maybe not.

I rarely tell anyone about it for two reasons.
1. I don’t think about it much, except for this time of year, or when I go home to visit or during periods of great stress (and then I have bad dreams.)
2 People form opinions about you that are in general, not good. I mean unless someone has had similar experiences, they tend to think you’re making it up for attention or you’re crazy.

So why mention it now. I’m not sure. The Halloween spirit I suppose. Though even as I am typing this I am seriously pondering deleting it all. I want to say that I have not had any issues anywhere else that I have lived. The museum I worked for was supposed to be haunted and I never experienced anything there. So it’s just my family home that gives me the heebee jeebees. Awesome.

At any rate, I will post my ghost story in the early evening. Just about haunting time. Have a great Halloween!!!

And I turn one year older. And except for Budda we are all showing our age.

I would tell you my actual age (I may have already somewhere on this blog) but I’m feeling a little paranoid about handing out that kind of info on-line.

I have never been ashamed of my age. I figure it’s a miracle I’ve lived this long, (yes, death has tried to take me more than once) so I’m grateful. I like to think of all this gray hair as highlights. (ooh it’s so sparkly) I mean women pay good money to have that done . . . don’t they?

My brother who is four years my senior (and has a birthday this month as well) says it’s a sign of hard livin’. (not to mention our genetics) He recently had someone complement him on his good-looking grand kids. And yes you guessed it . . . they were his kids, nothing grand involved.

A huge thanks to Brenda from Sioux Land Bricks for helping us get bricks that were almost a perfect match to our building.

The gallery building is showing her age a bit as well. I’ve been here 9 years but the building is nearly 100. Mike has been hard at work tuck-pointing her. (That’s where the mortar gets scraped out and replaced.) A hugely time consuming job. But it will be good to fix a few cracks in the bricks before winter sets in.

Old buildings like this need a lot of love. But they have so much more character than new construction. Most of the visitors we have come in and touch all the old woodwork. And oh and ah. Which is almost always followed by the question “Was this a bank?”

We recently went through a bunch of old postcards showing Rolfe in the 1910-1930 era’s. None of them had a good view of our building. I’ve heard a rumor that someone in town has a early photo of our place back when it was a car dealership, which is what it was built to be. Oddly enough it had a bunch of Ford tractors parked out front.

I got a little off topic there. I’m easily distracted. So anyway, Happy Birthday to all of us. The business, the Budda and me.

PS Next post will hopefully be of a finished horse painting.

We got back today from our trip to Sioux City. To find out why we were there you can click here or then again . . . you can just scroll down to the previous post.

Kathy Audus was a wonderful host and took us to see the Siouxland Artists Inc gallery. The artists there are doing some really nice special event (art auction) charity work. The gallery is still in it’s first year and it is lovely.

I think . . . I think
Despite being anti-social, I don’t have much fear of speaking in front of people. Probably because of art fairs I talk to thousand of people and artists every year. (Not that artists aren’t people.)

I think we did okay despite only putting in a few hours prep time. We presented a handout based on the blog posts that you guys helped me with earlier this year. (Thanks for that BTW it was invaluable.) which included

Caring for your prints,
How to choose a giclee publishing house,
the difference between a giclee and a lithograph
and questions to ask yourself about whether you should make prints.

We also included a print sample and both the gallery card and the giclee website card.

Not that I don’t enjoy hand grenades, rocket launchers, assault weapons and snipers rifles just as much as the next middle aged woman. . .

Since we were bringing handouts I asked how many to expect and was told 15-18 is their usual attendance (despite being a group with over 60 members.) So to be on the safe side I brought 20. Well, somewhere between 25-28 people came.

We were told to talk for 15-20 minutes and then allow questions for 10-15. The whole thing should be wrapped up in about half an hour. The plan was I would talk about my work and how the business got started and then Mike would talk about the printing. We each would talk 7-10 minutes. Well . . . they started asking questions before we were done and didn’t stop until well over an hour later. All in all we are calling that a success.

There’s nothing more relaxing than shooting rabbits in the face with a plunger.
To celebrate I got Rayman Raving Rabbids. (yes, that is spelled correctly) which for those of you not in-the-know is a video game. Upon returning home we peeked in the gallery to make sure the cat hadn’t destroyed the place and spent the rest of the day at home playing the new game.

What a hoot. I seriously looked at Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, but chose a much sillier game. Not that I don’t enjoy hand grenades, rocket launchers, assault weapons and sniper rifles just as much as the next middle aged woman, but as some of you may have noticed, I’ve kinda lightened up a lot lately. . . . and so has my gaming.

Somehow shooting rabbits in the face with a plunger (and occasionally whacking them with a shovel . . . and once or twice with a hammer) until they explode seems so much less violent. Probably not though, huh?